News Forum - Australian voters sweep conservative government out of power

[Tim_Melb]

3 hours ago, Vigo said:

The shift to Labour was less than 4%. Hardly a rousing endorsement. It was teal independents and to lesser extent greens who gained the interest and support. I don't think any western democracy has seen such an embrace of independent candidates before. IMO it speaks to the advanced democracy of Australia where  an individual's election platform was considered rather than the sectarian politics seen in other countries where it is  a choice of only  two shades of one colour. And I don't recall ever seeing a collection of as well qualified independents in other democracies.  Yes there are all sorts of fractured factions in dysfunctional democracies like Italy and Israel, but Australia smashed it out of the stadium when it elected so many people who have clean reputations and are less political nasties like Scotland's Sturgeon or hypocritical front's like Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill. And I doubt they will be disconnected robots like Dr. Merkel.

I never said it was a large swing to Labor but my point was that it was a swing to Labor and enough it appears to give them the ability to govern in their own right, not a swing against them as reported by the Thaiger.

[dbrenn]

8 hours ago, astro said:

Yes, but it's worth noting the large proportion of women, hasn't always been like this. It took decades, if not generations, and it is not because women suddenly became more qualified...

Looking at the degeneration of the Western world, I'd say people are a lot less happier than they were though. 

[oldschooler]

16 hours ago, dbrenn said:

Women this, women that. What difference does it make whether this or that politician has a crack or not? The best person should get the job, regardless of the anatomy of their genitalia. 

We are talking about what actually happened in terms of large numbers of female Independent MP’s getting elected. A valid subject. curious why this hadn’t happened ten or twenty years earlier. “ should” not part of this discussion nor genitalia…..

[dbrenn]

1 hour ago, oldschooler said:

We are talking about what actually happened in terms of large numbers of female Independent MP’s getting elected. A valid subject. curious why this hadn’t happened ten or twenty years earlier. “ should” not part of this discussion nor genitalia…..

OK, apologies for my flippancy. I'm thinking that there are following causes for what you observe:

1) People (myself included) can't bring themselves to vote for the major parties anymore 

2) The daft rule of mandatory voting in Australia, leaves people like me  (who would otherwise not have voted) in the polling booths thinking "I'm here, so I may as well vote for someone new". I can either scribble all over my ballot or vote for the little guy

3) The greater prevalence of women in senior and professional positions in the general workforce

4) The prevailing atmosphere of "equity", that unabashedly advocates discrimination in favour of women, to level up as it were 

There may be other reasons I've overlooked.